As spring arrived in March, willow branches drooped over the city walls, their catkins floating like smoke in the air.
Where in the capital could one not find a peaceful abode?
At the entrance of Tongluo Alley, near the Bian River in the southern part of the city, Ying Xiaoman was dragging a heavy fishing net into the alley, her feet sloshing through the muddy ground as she gripped the net's rope.
"Xiaoman's back?" A woman poked her head out from the narrow alley lined with clotheslines. "Your mother had another episode this morning. She nearly fell into the river while washing clothes. We quickly helped her back inside. You should find time to have a doctor check on her again."
Alarmed, Ying Xiaoman hastily tied the net to a crooked elm tree by the roadside, securing it with a few quick knots. "Thank you, Aunt Yang. I'll go check on my mother." Before she finished speaking, she had already dashed through her narrow doorway.
A few women who had been idly picking vegetables in front of their homes gathered around. "What live catch has the Ying girl brought back this time? The fresh shad she caught last time fetched quite a good price— Oh my!"
The woman in front jumped back in surprise. "There's a person in the net!"
"Help me, please," whimpered the old woman trapped in the net. She was short and stout, barely five feet tall, with a sheepish expression. Even her cry for help was timid, her slanted eyes darting furtively towards the half-closed door of the Ying household.
"That young lady is absolutely mad. People catch fish, but she catches old women like me. Someone, please get me down. I'm half dead already."
The women who were regular residents of Tongluo Alley were skeptical. "Miss Ying is a pretty young thing. You weren't up to no good and got caught by her, were you, you old thief?"
"Last time she caught a kidnapper and strung him up in a tree. He was later handed over to the Shuntian Prefecture and given forty lashes. You look shifty enough to be a kidnapper yourself, old woman."
The netted woman wailed in distress. "How could I be a kidnapper? I'm a respectable matchmaker, registered with the officials and everything! Miss Ying is a rare beauty, but she's wasting her heavenly fortune selling and gutting fish by the Bian River for mere pennies. A noble gentleman has taken a liking to her, and I, with the best intentions, came to offer her a better prospect. I'd barely said a few words when she—"
The wooden door of the Ying house opened from within, and Ying Xiaoman poked out her snow-white face. "Why don't you finish the story? I told you that I charge seventy coins for selling a fish and thirty for gutting one. It's enough to support my family. I have no desire to be a servant in some wealthy household. But you, old woman, tried to drag me off to be inspected by your 'noble gentleman' on his boat. Who likes to be examined like a fish at market?"
Aunt Yang suppressed a laugh and asked, "So when this old woman wouldn't leave you alone, you just scooped her up in your net and dragged her all the way back from the riverside?"
Ying Xiaoman suddenly looked nervous. She asked her neighbors, "I didn't hurt her, did I? Any bumps from the road or stone steps don't count as injuries caused by me, right? I'm not breaking any laws, am I?"
The women laughed and reassured her, "You didn't kill anyone, so it's not against the law."
"It's a pity your mother isn't well. If she were feeling better, she could have given a good beating with her washing paddle to anyone trying to sell her daughter into servitude."
Ying Xiaoman let out a small sigh of relief. As long as it wasn't illegal, that was fine.
They had only just managed to settle in the capital after months of wrangling with various government offices. She and her mother had finally been registered as a "tenth-rank household" and had rented this house in Tongluo Alley from the Capital City Shop and Residence Bureau for the incredibly low price of 300 coins.
If she had broken the law, the authorities might have reclaimed their rented property according to regulations, which would have been disastrous.
She untied the net and let the old matchmaker down. "Don't come looking for me again. Next time, you'll be greeted by a washing paddle." The old woman scurried away, clutching her head.
The capital was a place of unparalleled prosperity, with a population of a million, where all streams flowed into the sea. It was easy enough to find a place to live and make a living. But the capital had strict rules, and for outsiders to navigate them as smoothly as the local old-timers was no small feat.
The teacher at the private school often recited with a shake of his head: "Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles." She had traveled a thousand miles, journeying north from her small village by the Han River to the capital, and her horizons had indeed broadened.
Besides the old matchmaker, her net had caught a few scattered fish. As the net came undone, many of the fresh fish fell to the ground, flopping about. Ying Xiaoman squatted down to pick up the fish while chatting idly with her neighbors.
"That old woman kept insisting I was pretty and tried to persuade me to become a maid in a wealthy household. But I see plenty of beautiful people in the capital."
She was genuinely puzzled. "Take that nobleman on the two-story boat by the river today, the one who was eyeing me like a fish at market. He looked quite young, wore bright, fine clothes, and had a handsome face. He was surrounded by at least a dozen servants – each manservant was good-looking, and each maidservant was beautiful. Aren't they enough to serve him? Why would he need me as another maid?"
Aunt Yang laughed and said, "These nobles in the capital, they're never satisfied. Even if they have twenty beautiful concubines at home, they still keep mistresses outside, frequent brothels, and look for a twenty-first concubine."
Ying Xiaoman gasped, muttering to herself, "One man with twenty concubines, and then the concubines bear children... Wouldn't that require more than twenty courtyards to house them all? No wonder the grand mansions of the capital's elite families are all so enormous."
In the months since arriving in the capital, mindful of her adoptive father's dying wish, she had been going out every few days to gather information, listening for news of an official surnamed Yan (or Yan, or Yan) in teahouses and taverns.
Tongluo Alley in the southern part of the city was close to the fish market and the Bian River channel. It reeked of fish from dawn to dusk, and the streets were muddy year-round. Only the poor lived in this area; even a minor eighth-rank official with a bit of money wouldn't deign to reside here. Naturally, there weren't many teahouses or taverns nearby for people to spend money and relax.
Each time she went out, she had to weave through the streets like a peddler, taking shortcuts through small alleys to head north.
When she reached the northern and northeastern parts of the city where the wealthy lived, there were plenty of teahouses, taverns, bustling restaurants, and even busier brothels.
The first time she truly grasped the meaning of the phrase "deep courtyard, grand mansion" was on a day in early February. Dressed in a plain cotton jacket, she stood at the corner of a quiet lane in the eastern part of the city, staring at the uniform gray-tiled walls that lined the entire street. Every ten paces, the wall was inlaid with brick and stone patterns of lotus flowers and carp in different colors, stretching the entire length of the street.
She suddenly realized that this entire long street enclosed the compound of a single wealthy family. She was so stunned that she couldn't speak for a long while.
Then a passing nobleman reined in his horse beside her. He turned slightly to appraise her, then lifted her chin with his folded fan and asked with a pleasant smile, "Would you like to enter this mansion and enjoy a life of luxury?"
She hadn't been thinking about "enjoying a life of luxury" at all, but she was curious to know the family name of this grand mansion and to whom it belonged.
She avoided the cold fan but didn't leave. Instead, she looked up and asked, "Is this the Yan family residence?"
The gentleman wearing a purple sable fur coat raised an eyebrow and said to his attendants with a smile, "I thought we'd picked up a little white rabbit by the roadside, but it turns out she's been waiting here for us. I'm the rabbit she's been expecting." He closed his folding fan and meticulously dusted off the surface of his fur coat.
"You've already found out everything, yet you're still asking me. Yes, this is the Yan family home, and I'm the second son of the Yan family. Come in with me."
At that moment, when Ying Xiaoman heard the words "this is the Yan family," her spirits lifted, and her eyes brightened.
"I don't care about wealth and status. I just want to go in and have a look. Can I really follow you?"
The gentleman on horseback raised an eyebrow again and said to his attendants with a smile, "Listen to how the little white rabbit speaks. You should all learn from her."
He then closed his folding fan and handed it to Ying Xiaoman, gesturing for her to take it. She was startled, thinking it might be a custom for entering the homes of wealthy families in the capital. She obediently grasped the expensive ivory fan handle and followed the nobleman through the Yan family's main gate.
It took less than half an hour for her to realize she had come to the wrong place.
This was indeed the Yan family. The "Yan" of wild geese.
The Yan family was a noble house related to the imperial family by marriage. Their ancestors were founding military heroes, and generations of their descendants had been appointed as generals.
Yan Erlang, who had handed her the ivory fan and led her inside, appeared refined like a scholar but actually held the rank of Deputy Commander, a fifth-grade military position, overseeing a section of the imperial city's guards.
This was definitely not the corrupt "Yan" family her adoptive father sought vengeance against.
It took Ying Xiaoman only two sentences to be led into the Yan family gate, but it took her a full half hour to grab the door latch and escape through a side entrance.
She spent another hour winding through streets and alleys to shake off her pursuers before returning to Tongluo Alley in the southern part of the city, her shoe soles worn thin.
This happened in the second month of the year.
Living in the Capital City was no easy task. Ying Xiaoman, discouraged by this setback, didn't return to the northern part of the city for half a month.
Instead, she spent half a month killing fish by the canal in the southern part of the city.
Tongluo Alley was home to ordinary citizens, with narrow doors and small courtyards in every household. The corrupt "Yan" family her adoptive father sought revenge against couldn't possibly be here, so she felt safe staying.
However, when her adoptive mother occasionally fell ill, it wasn't easy to find a doctor.
Ying Xiaoman shooed away a matchmaker, distributed the fresh fish from her net to the neighbors, and asked several aunties to look after her unconscious adoptive mother. Then she set off, stumbling along, to find a doctor.
Her adoptive mother had a history of dizzy spells. Since her adoptive father's death, overwhelmed by grief, she would have one or two episodes almost every month. It wasn't difficult to treat; a doctor would use heated mugwort to stimulate several major acupuncture points on her body, which would quickly alleviate the symptoms.
What Ying Xiaoman didn't expect was that when she went to the riverside to look for a doctor, the noble's double-decker treasure ship she had seen in the morning was still moored in the same spot.
In the gathering darkness, lamps were lit at both ends of the large ship, illuminating the surrounding water. Three large black characters on bright yellow lanterns stood out strikingly in the twilight.
Ying Xiaoman peered from afar. As the lanterns swayed in the wind, she could make out the first character as "Da" (大), the second as "Li" (理), and the third seemed to be "Si" (寺).
The ten or so good-looking young servants and maids were nowhere to be seen. Instead, about ten burly guards with swords stood on the ship, protecting the noble at the bow.
The noble had changed out of his bright, eye-catching robe. Now dressed in a dark blue crane-patterned cloak, he stood sideways at the bow. In the lamplight, his features were unclear, but she could see him lowering his head in deep thought, his gaze fixed on the flowing water below.
Occasionally, he would give a brief command, and someone would splash into the river, seemingly searching for something.
Ying Xiaoman hid in the shadows at the entrance of the alley, watchfully eyeing the silhouette of the noble standing on the ship.
That morning, when the noble had stood at the bow, looking down at her, she had broken free from the matchmaker and left after a quick glance. She had only caught a rough glimpse of the noble's appearance, remembering that his height seemed to be level with the second lantern. How was it that after changing clothes, his stature now slightly exceeded the second lantern?
Her memory was hazy; perhaps she had remembered incorrectly. But the ship was definitely the same one.
As she watched, about ten men in black, form-fitting water gear, looking like "water ghosts," searched back and forth in the river. They found nothing and hung on the ship's railings, shaking their heads and gasping for breath.
By the time she had fetched the doctor and was hurrying back along the riverbank towards Tongluo Alley, the lanterns on the river still lit up the water like daylight, and the dozen or so "water ghosts" were still searching repeatedly. A crowd of onlookers had gathered on the shore.
Suddenly, everyone let out a collective shout as three or four "water ghosts" jointly dragged a corpse out of the river. The body was wrapped with thick ropes tied to two large stones, and from a distance, it looked swollen, much larger than a normal body.
The doctor standing beside Ying Xiaoman clicked his tongue in shock, "How the world has deteriorated! Tying stones to a body and pushing it into the river – this is blatant murder! No wonder the Ministry of Justice's official boat is anchored in the middle of the waterway, retrieving the body. Alas, judging by the bloating, it seems the body has been in the water for four or five days."
Ying Xiaoman glanced at the three characters "Ministry of Justice" hanging on the ship's lanterns and humbly asked the doctor, "What kind of temple is the Ministry of Justice? Do they handle collecting corpses?"
The doctor laughed so hard he started coughing, "Young lady, you're new to the Capital City. You should look around and listen more. The Ministry of Justice is the government office in charge of solving cases in the capital. For ordinary fights and theft cases, people go to the Shuntian Prefecture, but once there's a serious case involving loss of life, it must be handed over to the Ministry of Justice for investigation."
"I see," Ying Xiaoman thanked the doctor for his explanation. "Doctor, don't watch this spectacle anymore. Let's hurry to Tongluo Alley; my mother is waiting for the moxibustion treatment."
As they walked towards Tongluo Alley, she couldn't help but look back once more.
Even though they had found a body in the river, the activity on the water hadn't stopped. The dozen or so "water ghosts" continued to dive and search.
"Didn't they already find the body?" Ying Xiaoman asked in surprise. "Why are they still searching with lights?"
The doctor speculated, "Perhaps the body they found isn't the one they're looking for?"
He quietly shared some local legends of the Capital City with the newly arrived young lady.
"The Bian River flows through the Capital City, its current strong and swift, leading directly to the outer counties. It's said that every year in the Capital City, there are many missing person cases where neither the living nor the dead are ever found. Ahem... the bodies all go downstream."
Ying Xiaoman suddenly realized, "So, can one make money by retrieving bodies from the river?"
The doctor was startled and waved his hands repeatedly, "Those who do this work are called body retrievers. The bereaved families pay a hefty sum to bring the bodies home. The money might be good, but it's bad for one's karma! Only sturdy men in their prime with strong fortunes do this business. A young lady your age shouldn't even think about it."
Ying Xiaoman nodded, but her face still showed a thoughtful expression. She kept glancing back at the dark riverbank from time to time.
The noble figure standing at the side of the boat's prow continued to gaze down at the churning, rolling waters of the river.